Kathryn Fakeley headlines Macon-Mercer Symphony opener

Kathryn Fakeley is as exuberant talking about life and music as she is when she’s performing on her cello, which is a lot on all counts.

The junior at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, who began her musical journey with piano lessons as a toddler, is featured soloist Monday when the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra opens its 2025-26 season.

Fakeley won soloist honors as co-winner of Mercer’s university-wide concerto competition. McDuffie violinist Hanami Froom was also a co-winner and was featured soloist during last season’s closing concert.

“Kathryn is a special young musician,” said violin virtuoso and McDuffie Center director Amy Schwartz Moretti. “Love for the cello and music emanates from her. And we get to hear her perform the Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, on Monday, one of the all-time great cello works.”

Music, a family thing

Fakeley’s story is a testament to family, generational artistry and early inspiration.

“It’s funny, because my parents were both very athletic, they met in a karate class and they were not musical at all,” Fakeley said. “Everyone assumed their children would be athletic but my three sisters and I all ended up doing music.”

But Fakeley’s Oma, her grandmother, was musical indeed. Immigrating from Germany to Canada when she was 17, all she brought with her was her accordion and cello.

“I fell in love with music very young,” Fakeley said. “My parents put me in piano lessons when I was 3 and when I was 6, my Oma told them I should play cello, so I started that. I’ve been in love with the cello ever since. I have such a huge love for all things music. I love composing, orchestrating, arranging.”

Fakeley said her parents have been a great support and her Oma a great inspiration.

“She wasn’t a professional, but she played and loved music,” Fakeley said. “She would come to our house and help me practice when I was young, and she was such an encouragement. Whenever I get good news about an opportunity or competition, she’s always the first person I want to call.”

Growing as a musician — with sisters

As Fakeley grew, so did her musical talents and the opportunities to play to larger audiences with increasingly professional collaborators.

She’s won many competitions and played across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Africa. She made her solo debut at 13 and continued with the likes of Canada’s Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Civic Symphony, the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra and many illustrious chamber music groups, including this summer at the Rome, Italy, Chamber Music Festival.

She began teaching at an early age and has always made room for playing in senior settings and recently at Macon’s Daybreak Day Resource Center.

“I think it’s so beautiful going out into the community to play for people who need it most,” she said. “You can play a million concert halls, but touching someone by going to a nursing home or hospital or school is very, very important to me. I’m in the process of trying to establish an outreach program, something I definitely want to be a major part of my career.”

But the family connection remained strong growing up and still is, especially with her younger musician sisters Sofia, Emily and Clare.

“I was always coming up with projects for my sisters,” she said. “We would make music videos. We had the most fun doing that. We saw something we wanted to make happen and we got it done. We grew up busking together, playing on street corners and whatnot. We’d go to the farmers’ market and play. Crowds loved it, and there was such a positive reaction. When I’m home, we go back, and it brings such great memories. Plus, it teaches you to play come what may.

“I feel my family is the reason for everything, you know? If it wasn’t for my mom and dad making so many sacrifices, I wouldn’t be here today.”

And then to Macon

“Two years ago, I didn’t even know Macon existed,” Fakeley said. “Honestly, it’s very providential how it happened.”

Essentially, Fakeley’s cello teacher at the time knew of the McDuffie Center through a former McDuffie student who also taught there for a season.

“It’s kind of funny,” Fakeley said. “My dad and I looked at the website and I was thinking, ‘Full tuition scholarships? Macon, Georgia? At that level of musicianship? Is that even real?’ We looked further and — well — my dream has always been to study with Hans Jørgen Jensen, and, my goodness, he teaches here! Ever since I was little, I’d used his instruction and technique books and thought the world of him, always dreaming of working with him. So yeah, I applied, was accepted and got a one-way ticket to Georgia. Now, it brings me to tears thinking about leaving. I’ve made such incredible friends and the community feels like home, like family. I’m trying to cherish my last two years here and soak up every single moment. I’ll definitely be back. I love this place.”

A performance with the
Macon-Mercer Symphony

The Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, has long been a favorite of Fakeley’s. It is the piece she won the Mercer concerto contest with and what she will perform as featured soloist on Monday.

“The Elgar Concerto is a piece that made me want to learn the cello,” Fakeley said. “It was written just after World War II by Edward Elgar but didn’t become popular until Jacqueline du Pré began performing it in the 1960s. Now, it’s the most popular solo cello piece around. I loved listening to her recording of it when I was 5 or 6. I would turn it on and my sisters and I would dance around, especially to the second movement. It’s very fast and sporadic, and we’d jump from couch to couch. But the first movement really impacted me with how absolutely painful it sounded, though I couldn’t understand the emotions. Still, I was captivated by how it could make you feel a certain way. I realized, ‘Oh my goodness, music can make a person feel things.’ I started thinking early on, ‘OK, I want to learn this.’”

However, learning it could have gotten Fakeley in trouble.

“I was about 10 and still obsessed with it,” she said. “I asked my teacher and my mom to let me learn it, and they said I was much too young and had years to go before I could start it. Then, one day we were in Calgary and my mom sent me into a little music store for something and there it was: the Elgar Concerto sheet music. I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is my chance.’ So, without my mom knowing, I secretly bought the music and would work on it whenever my parents weren’t home. I loved the concert so much but knew they’d stand by my teacher and say I was too young and not technically ready for it. So, I’d learn a few lines here and there and that’s how my journey with the concerto began, you know, as kind of a secret.”

Fakeley said it’s an honor to get to play it alongside her good friends and fellow musicians from the McDuffie Center and members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. And she said her parents will be there to hear it, their first-ever visit to Macon.

Looking forward to the evening, Robert McDuffie, founder of the center and the Macon-Mercer Symphony, had this to say: “Kathryn is a joy. She’s in love with music, and her passionate playing connects with audiences in the most immediate way. She’s also been a great ambassador for the McDuffie Center and for Macon. It will be a special night with Kathryn on stage. I’m very proud of her.”

Joseph Young will be Monday’s guest conductor.

Known for rich interpretations and an expansive conducting style, he’s led major ensembles such as the San Francisco Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra.

As music director of the Berkeley Symphony from 2019 to 2025, he grew its audience by 40% while championing new works. He also served as artistic director of ensembles at the Peabody Conservatory. Other works to be performed on Monday are Rossini’s “Overture to La Gazza Ladra” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.”

Monday’s concert is at 7:30 p.m. at the Piedmont Grand Opera House. More information and ticket links can be found at mcduffie.mercer.edu/symphony.

Students with IDs are admitted free.

Final thoughts from Fakeley?

“I’d just love to say that I think music has such extraordinary power to touch and soften people’s hearts,” she said. “It’s such a privilege to get to do what I do and I wake up every day grateful for it. The world is so broken and hurting right now, I really believe music has the power to touch and help heal hearts.”

Contact Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram: michael_w_pannell.